VELVET BEAN. Melina utilis, Wall., or M. pruriens, DC., var. stills, Bailey. Leguminosw. Figs. 887490.
By H. Harold Hume.
The velvet bean is a twining plant grown for its vegetative parts and for its seeds, both of which are used for feeding. The plant is also important as a cover-crop and for green-manuring. The casual observer would probably mistake the plant in its younger stages for one of the pole lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus), but a close examination would show many well-marked differences. It has become, in recent years, an important addition to the list of field crops in the Gulf coast sections of the United States, and along the Atlantic coast as far north as the coastal plain of North Carolina. It is likewise well adapted to the climatic condi tions of Porto Rico, Cuba, coastal Mexico, Hawaii and other tropical regions. It is in climates where it has a very long growing season that it reaches its maximum growth. It is a native of India and appears to have been introduced into America about 1872 or 1877.
The vine frequently reaches seventy-five feet or more in length, branching, smooth and rather slen der. The leaves are large, four inches by three inches, and trifoliolate. The flowers are large and produced in racemes from the arils of the leaves. In general color they are purple. The pods are about three inches long, blunt pointed, slightly constricted between the seeds when mature, and covered with a thick coating of dark velvety hairs. From the latter character of the pods the plant takes its name. Each pod contains three to six almost globular seeds, three-eighths or one-half inch in diameter. The beans are marked or splashed with dirty white color and are somewhat similar to castor-beans. Occasionally beans are found of a solid dull white or a solid brownish black color.
Culture.
Soil.—The velvet bean is not particular in its soil requirements. It may be grown successfully on any fairly well-drained soil, and is well adapted to the agricultural soils of the Gulf states. On lands containing a goodly amount of moisture it produces enormous yields.
Fertilizers. — It is always best to use some fertilizer for the velvet bean. While capable of securing its own nitrogen, it is greatly benefited on most soils by applications of potash and phos phoric acid, and sometimes also by nitrogen. A
mixture of sev enty-five pounds of high-grade sulfate of potash and 200 pounds of acid phos phate per acre, applied in t h e drill at the time of planting, is excellent.
Planting. — It is best to plant the crop in rows four feet apart and allow the plants to stand two or three feet apart in the row. A half-peck of good seed is suffi cient for an acre if planted in hills, although as much as a peck is sometimes used. Toward the northern limits of its growth, seed is not produced, as the crop is very tender and easily frosted, and sections so situated must depend on localities farther south for their seed supply.
Place in the rotation.—When grown and fed on the land or plowed back into the soil, the velvet bean makes an excellent preparation for corn, cotton and sugar-cane. The nitrogen and humus supplied are of great value and the mechanical condition of the soil is vastly improved.
The only crop in conjunction with which the velvet bean may be planted to advantage is corn. Planted at the same time or after the corn, it usually does not begin to run until the latter is well grown. In the rotation, the velvet bean; most generally be given the ground for one whole season.
Two-. or four-year rotations with corn and cotton may be arranged as follows: Two-year.—(1) corn and velvet beans; (2) cotton. Four-year.— (1) corn; (2) velvet beans; (3) cotton; (4) velvet beans.
Subsequent care.—After the beans are up, the ground should be cultivated two or three times to conserve moisture and keep down the weeds until the plants are well started. Then the vines grow rapidly, soon shade the ground and smother out all weeds and other vegetation that may attempt to grow. In a well-conducted rotation, the crop may be made to play no mean part in weed eradication. In fact, the vines take possession of and clamber over almost anything that may be growing on the land, and shrubs and small trees are often destroyed. The introduction of a bush variety would be a decided improvement in many ways.